184 pages : 26 cm

Examines the dances, jigsaw puzzles, raccoon coats, flagpole sitting, goldfish swallowing, and streaking that have preoccupied Americans since the late nineteenth century

"Remember the Gibson Girl, the Flapper, the Bobbysoxer? Remember Beatlemania--the first time around? You'll find them all in this kaleidoscopic survey of American fads and foibles. Here are the Charleston, the Conga, and the Twist; the flagpole sitters, the goldfish swallowers, and the flash of the stark-naked streakers. Here is madcap America concocting fads, promoting them, feverishly embracing them, institutionalizing them as high chic. lf you're ten, your scraped knees may bear bloody witness to your passion for skateboarding. lf you're eighteen, an old Superball probably lurks somewhere among your socks and underwear. And if you survived the Depression, you know the "Flat Foot Floogie" had a floy floy and can still remember Ben Bernie signing off: "And so it's time to say goodnight. Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah." And, the band played on. The authors look at the whys and wherefores of the rise of fads in America, at the events, the personalities, and the emotions that generate fads: in the twenties, when we thrilled to the nonsense of "Yes, we have no bananas" and assured ourselves that every day, in every way, we were getting better. In the years between the Crash and Hiroshima, when fortunes were to be made not on the stock market but in chain letters, and we gawked with equal fascination at the love lives of Scarlett O'Hara and the Duchess of Windsor. In the Howdy Doody era, when the imperative of a well-stocked fallout shelter in every basement was superseded only by the mandate for two cars in every garage, and hoola hoops and Bermuda shorts provided distractions from the Bomb. And in our own era, when the rapid succession of new and recycled fads--from streaking to jogging to hustling for religion--reflect reactions to (or retreats from) the high-pressure sixties and seventies. No one has escaped fads, and this book brings back those we may have forgotten with all their immediacy and urgency. Although the photographs may often strain your credulity, [this book] will probably give you more insight into the American personality than the most serious history possibly could."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-184)

Beginnings : the whys and wherefores of the rise of fads in America -- "Yes, we have no bananas" : from the silly songs and the mah-jongg craze through the ouija board madness and the marathons; the years when every day, in every way, we got better and better -- "Brother, can you spare a dime?" : between the Crash and Nagasaki, we played miniature golf, cashed in on chain letters, and cut that rug; from New Jersey came "The Voice"; and from the Old South came "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" -- "It's Howdy Doody time!" : surfacing from the fallout shelters to embrace Davy Crockett, "Droodles," poodle skirts, and barfy Bermuda shorts -- "We shall overcome" : streaking, jogging, hustling for The Reverend Moon, and more about the rise of fads in America

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